THE MANUAL OF ARMS - Basic Handgun Skills

DO YOU WANT TO GET KINETIC?
hAVE YOU EVER DREAMED OF BEING A PROJECTILE?
DO YOU WISH TO ACHIEVE KNIGHTHOOD?
YUO MUST ENGAGE IN PRACTICAL COMPETITIVE SHOOTING.

Training Mentality

When learning a new skill, it is important to be process focused rather then outcome focused because these fundamental skills are meant to build you up to more advanced techniques; ingoring the techniques in here because "I already know how to shoot good groups," will make it harder to learn more advanced skills.

Terms Defined

Here are some important key terms to keep in mind when learning.
  1. Trigger hand: Your dominant hand that you will be using to work the trigger of your weapon with.
  2. Support hand: your non-dominant hand that you will be supporting your weapons with.

Connection to your Pistol

The grip is what you use to immediately control the handgun with the goal to place rapid accurate shots. Recoil can never be eliminated because you're having an explosion go off in your hands, but you can manage it with proper grip.
  1. Trigger hand grip:Your trigger hand high as possible on the grip of the weapon. The two images above show how high your trigger hand should be on the grip of the pistol.
  2. The seal: Your support and trigger hand need to be sealed on the weapon meaning that there should be no gaps between your hands. Make sure that both thumbs are forward to help with this.
  3. Pressure: The meat of your palm driven into the grip by applying grip pressure. Your support hand should be doing the vast majority of work here, keep your trigger hand firm but relaxed. The purpose of keeping your trigger hand relaxed is to allow you to make shots with little disturbance to the pistol.
  4. Wrists locked: this is important for controlling the firearm, you do not want the weapon recoiling out of your hand.
  5. The arms: A small bend in the elbows can assist with controlling the backwards motion of the firearm. It is also a good que for yourself to not have unecessary tension exhausting your arms and trigger hand, and as a consequence absorb some of the weapon's recoil.
Your grip should look like this if you have followed the above steps properly.

Stance

  1. Knees unlocked: Because you must be ready to move.
  2. Slight lean forward: You are ready to control the gun and not have the gun control you by pushing you around with the recoil.
  3. Shoulders relaxed: You do not want to tense up and creating a situationg where you are fighting yourself and exhaust energy with unecessary body tension.

With a pistol, the completed stance should look similar to this.